That's what an exhausted team looks like

[3rdbass]

I disagree with 9904, but that is a fair argument.

To me, it just looked like the usual script against a better team that wasn't going to let them get away with it.

At this late date, I think I can see the runs coming. They're merely awful when they come against teams like ECU or UCF, but better teams like SMU, Cincy, and I cannot believe I am saying this, Houston really beat this program's face off at at times.

I don't think Houston is better but they sure did out hustle us and we never used our supposed advantage inside against them especially with Kelis Fisher and SE playing well there. I do believe Houston is just as good as us on the perimeter.

 

[Mots010]

Jalen was gasping for air within the first 7-8 minutes of the game. He really needs to work on his cardio in the off season.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Jalen was gasping for air within the first 7-8 minutes of the game. He really needs to work on his cardio in the off season.

He already has the 80s aerobics video shorts going for him

 

[Drew]

I don't think Houston is better but they sure did out hustle us and we never used our supposed advantage inside against them especially with Kelis Fisher and SE playing well there. I do believe Houston is just as good as us on the perimeter.

Houston has beaten us twice this year and is one win away from 20 wins how are they not better than us?

 

[Mr. Hand]

So you're saying they weren't tired for the first 20 minutes, had 15 minutes of rest at halftime, and then were suddenly tired?

UConn played great from minutes 1-20, and then Houston erased a 10-point deficit in 6 minutes. Being tired doesn't add up here.

Physical fatigue can be overcome. Mental fatigue is what kills performance.

 

[Mr. Hand]

They ran into the same problems they run into on nearly a game by game basis.

That they did it in the second half tonight makes fatigue a convenient excuse.

But that's bull.

Nothing gets me good and depressed like a vague Fishy post about unnamed "problems."

I think you're wrong, by the way.

They were spent in the first five minutes, whatever the score was at halftime. And it's not a physical fatigue, it's mental.

 

[lange10]

Fatigue or not I think everyone would agree we played two entirely different halves of basketball last night.

Ollie is a great coach, I'm in the camp that firing him now, or next year isn't the brightest idea. But I've finally realized, and it's so frustrating, that a staple of his teams is the inability to play a full 40.

So many times we dig ourselves into big deficits because of lackadaisical starts. To counter that, any time we have a double digit lead I don't feel safe because a 6-8 minute FG drought is impending.

I really do like the guy but when one of you're staples is "full 40" or whatever it was last year...then ensure you're squad is playing the full 40.

 

[Paesano]

I think the problem is rust. Oh wait, that is next year's excuse.

 

[willie99]

With all due respect to the OP, they've been running into a brick walls since opening day

Ollie must have worked them too hard in October

and wasn't conditioning always a strength of ours?

I'm sorry, I don't buy into the tired team syndrome, in large part because we're only tired during stretches of each game

 

[UConnNick]

So you're saying they weren't tired for the first 20 minutes, had 15 minutes of rest at halftime, and then were suddenly tired?

UConn played great from minutes 1-20, and then Houston erased a 10-point deficit in 6 minutes. Being tired doesn't add up here.

Plenty of other team run with a 7 man rotation or less. Look at SMU. At this point in the season, they look far from tired. If we're tired, that's a conditioning problem.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

UConn hasn't played a full game all damn season. It's the same garbage we've seen not just this season but the last few seasons. The only difference between to tonight's game and every one is that we jumped out to a lead as opposed to our customary double digits deficit.

Offense goes on a 5 minute or more scoring draught, we get killed on the boards because our bigs can't box out and we give up too many open looks to the other team.

Not too mention KO effectively ending the game with an idiotic timeout

If you aren't seriously concerned about the state of our program you need to open your eyes. It's not so much about the W/Ls in KO's tenure post Shabazz but it's seeing every season and game unfold the damn near same way.

And here we are in year 5 rationalizing a loss to an average Houston team playing in front of 789 people because our guys were tired? Wow.

 

[KingAG]

Jalen was gasping for air within the first 7-8 minutes of the game. He really needs to work on his cardio in the off season.

He is getting over the flu if I'm not mistaken. Could've played a factor in him being winded

 

[KingAG]

UConn hasn't played a full game all damn season. It's the same garbage we've seen not just this season but the last few seasons. The only difference between to tonight's game and every one is that we jumped out to a lead as opposed to our customary double digits deficit.

Offense goes on a 5 minute or more scoring draught, we get killed on the boards because our bigs can't box out and we give up too many open looks to the other team.

Not too mention KO effectively ending the game with an idiotic timeout

If you aren't seriously concerned about the state of our program you need to open your eyes. It's not so much about the W/Ls in KO's tenure post Shabazz but it's seeing every season and game unfold the damn near same way.

And here we are in year 5 rationalizing a loss to an average Houston team playing in front of 789 people because our guys were tired? Wow.

Ppl keep referencing "post shabazz" like the year before the championship wasnt a coaching masterpiece. I'm sure you were on of those same ppl then claiming that season was lost. Then in the championship run KO out coached 3 hall of fame coaches and a really good one in fred hoiberg. Last yr you can say we "underacheived" but we still won 25 games, won the conference tourney, and eventually lost to the number 1 overall seed in Kansas. How different would the narrative be if we drew the teams Cuse faced in the tourney. We probably get to at least the sweet 16. KO has his flaws that need fixing, it's also true that we haven't been classic UCONN dominant in a few years. But it's not KO'S fault
Look at the situation he was handed. He was handed a program that was "dead" according to almost every national pundit. He was left and forsaken to a near mid major conference with severe recruiting sanctions. And through all of that won us a freaking championship, had us a top 10 recruiting class, and has a still relevant nationally on the recruiting trail. Hand 95% of the coaches in college basketball the circumstances KO had and UCONN would be dead. The disrespect KO gets on here sometimes is astounding. We have become spoiled and really don't know how good we have it.

RANT OVER

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Ppl keep referencing "post shabazz" like the year before the championship wasnt a coaching masterpiece. I'm sure you were on of those same ppl then claiming that season was lost. Then in the championship run KO out coached 3 hall of fame coaches and a really good one in fred hoiberg. Last yr you can say we "underacheived" but we still won 25 games, won the conference tourney, and eventually lost to the number 1 overall seed in Kansas. How different would the narrative be if we drew the teams Cuse faced in the tourney. We probably get to at least the sweet 16. KO has his flaws that need fixing, it's also true that we haven't been classic UCONN dominant in a few years. But it's not KO'S fault
Look at the situation he was handed. He was handed a program that was "dead" according to almost every national pundit. He was left and forsaken to a near mid major conference with severe recruiting sanctions. And through all of that won us a freaking championship, had us a top 10 recruiting class, and has a still relevant nationally on the recruiting trail. Hand 95% of the coaches in college basketball the circumstances KO had and UCONN would be dead. The disrespect KO gets on here sometimes is astounding. We have become spoiled and really don't know how good we have it.

RANT OVER

Dude, a coaching masterpiece? Team won 20 games that season with Napier, Boat, Daniels, Giffey and a healthy Calhoun. Settle down.

It was an awesome job and you give KO credit for keeping the program together but come on they were good but a borderline NCAA team.

The title season is where Ollie gets his due and he gets credit for that no question asked.

NIT with Boat and company was a massive fail.

2nd round loss last season was an underachievement.

Missing the NIT this season is a massive underachievement.

I'm not in the fire Ollie camp but the trajectory of the program is doing down and it's not entirely based off of the W/L but the way we play. Little to no offensive continuity, scoring draughts, constantly falling behind and senior bigs who still can't box out.

Open your eyes.

 

[pj]

Fatigue or not I think everyone would agree we played two entirely different halves of basketball last night.

Ollie is a great coach, I'm in the camp that firing him now, or next year isn't the brightest idea. But I've finally realized, and it's so frustrating, that a staple of his teams is the inability to play a full 40.

So many times we dig ourselves into big deficits because of lackadaisical starts. To counter that, any time we have a double digit lead I don't feel safe because a 6-8 minute FG drought is impending.

I really do like the guy but when one of you're staples is "full 40" or whatever it was last year...then ensure you're squad is playing the full 40.

I attribute it to (a) not having the quality depth that enables a coach to punish lackadaisical effort with reduced playing time, and (b) Ollie rising the learning curve of learning how and when to be tough with his players.

I think we'll see 40 minutes of effort next year. And if we don't, Ollie will build a doghouse.

 

[storrsroars]

I don't buy "exhaustion". If they were still only playing 6 schollies, maybe, but that hasn't been the case for awhile. It was simply a mess in the 2nd half. It's really upsetting watching our guys continually get beat to every 50/50 ball, be out of position on long rebounds (and too many putback chances in the paint) and not finishing bunnies. To me, it was simple lack of effort.

Hard to believe this was the same team that pulled out a few games in the past two weeks with lockdown defense. They were terrible last night, although Enoch seems to be improving.

 

[UConn3432]

In the first half it looked like KO forgot he had already burned a timeout and called his second one with 48 seconds left, up 10, with the ball. That timeout would have been useful in the second half when they were getting run out of the gym and he had no way of slowing it down.

 

[Marty Jackson]

They ran into the same problems they run into on nearly a game by game basis.

That they did it in the second half tonight makes fatigue a convenient excuse.

But that's bull.

i don't know if it was fatigue, confusion, puckering, or whatever, but the team that was firing on all cylinders in the first half had no answers in the second. and Houston just poured it on with faster, stronger, and more physical play, especially on the perimeter. Pitino would use the same tactic against uconn's guards and Shabazz and Boathright had similar games.

Houston adjusted, and Uconn wasn't able to counter.

Enoch had 6 quick points in the first half. did he play in the second?
I'm not typically an AB basher, but last night was not his best game. He made Myer(sp) look like an All-American lottery pick.

We can joke about Calhoun's notorious quick hook, but Ollie needs to think about employing that tactic.

 

[ctchamps]

In the first half it looked like KO forgot he had already burned a timeout and called his second one with 48 seconds left, up 10, with the ball. That timeout would have been useful in the second half when they were getting run out of the gym and he had no way of slowing it down.

They scored after that time out. A lot of things to criticize. Not sure this is one of them.

 

[superjohn]

He already has the 80s aerobics video shorts going for him

What's with the short shorts? Seems like the whole team wears short shorts. When I played in the late 90's, we wouldn't be caught dead wearing those.

 

[ctchamps]

i don't know if it was fatigue, confusion, puckering, or whatever, but the team that was firing on all cylinders in the first half had no answers in the second. and Houston just poured it on with faster, stronger, and more physical play, especially on the perimeter. Pitino would use the same tactic against uconn's guards and Shabazz and Boathright had similar games.

Houston adjusted, and Uconn wasn't able to counter.

Enoch had 6 quick points in the first half. did he play in the second?
I'm not typically an AB basher, but last night was not his best game. He made Myer(sp) look like an All-American lottery pick.

We can joke about Calhoun's notorious quick hook, but Ollie needs to think about employing that tactic.

He gave AB quick hooks throughout the game. He's settled on keeping AB at the end of games to minimize opposing guards from driving into the lane and scoring. If you watch Steve, he plants himself in the post, seldom moving his feet to block shots. The result is either a foul or an easy layup by opposing quick players.

This was arguably Amida's worse game this season and that includes those games in which he fouled out quickly. It's a shame because this was a winnable game. But he wasn't alone. Pretty much everyone outside of Steve played below their average game particularly on offense. They had a lot of decent looks that they missed. Part of it is the pressure they put on themselves. This was an important game. Part of it is they have the type of personalities that tend to struggle when things start going wrong (except Vital imo) and a good part of it is fatigue both mental and physical.

I don't care what age we are, stress applied to our bodies impacts the bodies ability to perform and it's cumulative. It just the older we get the quicker the impact. But there is a threshold for everyone. Look at Nadal or Tiger. They were young when the stress caught up with them. These kids have played a lot of minutes. They've had to travel a lot. The argument regarding SMU having only six players is valid only if you conveniently overlook that those six players are above average for the positions they play. The primary six KO has to utilize are not of equal caliber. As good as Christian and Vance have been, and as good as the experience both are getting to help them in the future, I believe that if those two had season ending injuries instead of Terry and Alterique, the results would have turned out better this season because they are better players.

I strongly believe Jalen would not be as tired at this point of the season if Alterique was available as opposed to Christian. I'm obviously conjecturing and I want to make it clear that I love a player like Christian who is the epitome of gritty and plucky, but he is a back up type player and Alterique came in with star quality.

 

[KingAG]

Dude, a coaching masterpiece? Team won 20 games that season with Napier, Boat, Daniels, Giffey and a healthy Calhoun. Settle down.

It was an awesome job and you give KO credit for keeping the program together but come on they were good but a borderline NCAA team.

The title season is where Ollie gets his due and he gets credit for that no question asked.

NIT with Boat and company was a massive fail.

2nd round loss last season was an underachievement.

Missing the NIT this season is a massive underachievement.

I'm not in the fire Ollie camp but the trajectory of the program is doing down and it's not entirely based off of the W/L but the way we play. Little to no offensive continuity, scoring draughts, constantly falling behind and senior bigs who still can't box out.

Open your eyes.

Yes masterpiece. Calhoun did worse the year before with better talent. And v 20 wins in that big East was a great achievement. Who had them winning 20 games?

 

[Mots010]

Yes masterpiece. Calhoun did worse the year before with better talent. And v 20 wins in that big East was a great achievement. Who had them winning 20 games?

And recall that team was gutted by injuries at the end of the year. They lost Napier for a few, and I think a few others missed games towards the end. They lost a few games down the stretch missing some players, and still would have made the tourney if they were eligible.

My biggest issue with Ollie, is can he have this team ready to go with defined roles on day one next year? What happened to start this season was inexcusable. The injuries derailed things, but no way this team should have looked as bad as it did to start this season against Wagner and Northeastern. It looked like our guys just met each other a few hours before the game started.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Yes masterpiece. Calhoun did worse the year before with better talent. And v 20 wins in that big East was a great achievement. Who had them winning 20 games?

Maybe it's your expectations that need to be adjusted?

In Ollie's "masterpiece" UConn was 20-10 (10-8) with a KenPom rating of 49 and an RPI of 47 in 2012/2013.

Calhoun did worse in 2011/2012? UConn was 20-14 (with the 8th toughest SOS) and had a KenPom rating of 38 and an RPI of 33.

I consider myself pretty moderate when it comes to the Ollie spectrum, but the Ollie is a doing a good job crowd is equally annoying as the fire Ollie crowd.

The past 3 seasons have been nowhere near UConn standards. NIT, 2nd Round Loss and no postseason. We may have had some lack of depth but we certainly have had the talent to perform better than we have.

 

[Travelman6]

This has been a very depressing year. That was a big game (all things considered) and for a half, Uconn acted like it was....I am not really sure what happened in the second half. Well, lack of defensive boards and more poor shooting, but still.... But it is not very common for a good team to blow a lead like that, when they are up at least a dozen (39-27). To a team that considers itself good, it might happen once a year that you blow a double digit lead, MAYBE twice. Uconn has had a knack for that.

 

[ctchamps]

Yes masterpiece. Calhoun did worse the year before with better talent. And v 20 wins in that big East was a great achievement. Who had them winning 20 games?

How silly of you. Those twenty wins aren't much of an achievement. KO almost got the complete roster back from the prior season. He only lost Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb to the NBA, Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith and most importantly Michael Bradley to transfers and Kyle Bailey, P.J. Cochrane and Ethan Waite to graduation.

We still had a junior Enosch Wolf and junior Tyler Olander returning so we didn't need significant bigs to replace Drummond and Oriakhi. And thus anyone arguing the APR sanction and restrictions mattered are extremely foolish particularly since those restrictions did not interfere with KO's ability to recruit Phil Nolan and Leon Tolksdorf.

You have to give @ConnHuskBask credit for observing that the glass KO started with was mostly full when so many of us look at those who left and believe idiotically that the program lost a significant number of important players and the glass was significantly empty.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

How silly of you. Those twenty wins aren't much of an achievement. KO almost got the complete roster back from the prior season. He only lost Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb to the NBA, Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith and most importantly Michael Bradley to transfers and Kyle Bailey, P.J. Cochrane and Ethan Waite to graduation.

We still had a junior Enosch Wolf and junior Tyler Olander returning so we didn't need significant bigs to replace Drummond and Oriakhi. And thus anyone arguing the APR sanction and restrictions mattered are extremely foolish particularly since those restrictions did not interfere with KO's ability to recruit Phil Nolan and Leon Tolksdorf.

You have to give @ConnHuskBask credit for observing that the glass KO started with was mostly full when so many of us look at those who left and believe idiotically that the program lost a significant number of important players and the glass was significantly empty.

If @AntG168 is going to proclaim that he did better than Calhoun, it's just flat out untrue.

For all the players that left the 2011/2012 team, the 2012/2013 still had a lot of talent:

Junior Napier, Sophomore Boatright, Sophomore Daniels, Junior Giffey, Freshman (healthy) Calhoun.

KO did a nice job keeping the program moving forward, but that was an NIT (had they been eligible) team, plain and simple.

I'll reiterate that I still think KO is the man for the job, but aside Napier morphing into the best player in college basketball in 2013/2014, we haven't been able to run consistent offense, we start games poorly, we make dumb plays over and over again, our bigs can't box out and when we are faced with in game adversity we usually fall apart.

The talent the past few years isn't classic UConn, that's a given and can be attributed to the ban and scholarship reductions, but there is absolutely enough talent that 1 NCAA tourney appearance in that time span is an indication of poor coaching. We're getting worked over in an AAC schedule yearly. I think the only reason that all of us aren't recognizing the huge issue is that we are feasting on AAC dredges, where as putting together a few 12 win seasons in the old Big East would have turned some heads.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Jalen was gasping for air within the first 7-8 minutes of the game. He really needs to work on his cardio in the off season.

I believe that Jalen was sick last week and looked like he was not really better to me. He seemed sluggish from the get go last night. His 3 point airball at the end of the game was not something we have seen from Jalen before that I recall. However, he did slam one on a fast break. I could be wrong for sure, but he did not seem to have his usual energy level.

 

[tykurez]

It can be both.

They played like collective garbage for the entire 2nd half. Purvis had a horrific game. Looked like he didn't want the touch the ball.

Jalen is playing 39.9 minutes a game. He also tweaked something in the second half.

Ollie did not do a good job adjusting to Houstons 2nd half game plan.

So they all had a poor 20 minutes and unfortunately on the road against a decent team, that's going to get you a loss.

But they can also be mentally and physically exhausted from only carrying 6-7 scholarship players since November. If you extrapolate any more from this season other than the fact that they've had a tremendous amount of bad fortune and are being forced to give guys 30 minutes a game that might only get 10 or 15 ... then you need to settle down.

 

[ctchamps]

If @AntG168 is going to proclaim that he did better than Calhoun, it's just flat out untrue.

For all the players that left the 2011/2012 team, the 2012/2013 still had a lot of talent:

Junior Napier, Sophomore Boatright, Sophomore Daniels, Junior Giffey, Freshman (healthy) Calhoun.

KO did a nice job keeping the program moving forward, but that was an NIT (had they been eligible) team, plain and simple.

I'll reiterate that I still think KO is the man for the job, but aside Napier morphing into the best player in college basketball in 2013/2014, we haven't been able to run consistent offense, we start games poorly, we make dumb plays over and over again, our bigs can't box out and when we are faced with in game adversity we usually fall apart.

The talent the past few years isn't classic UConn, that's a given and can be attributed to the ban and scholarship reductions, but there is absolutely enough talent that 1 NCAA tourney appearance in that time span is an indication of poor coaching. We're getting worked over in an AAC schedule yearly. I think the only reason that all of us aren't recognizing the huge issue is that we are feasting on AAC dredges, where as putting together a few 12 win seasons in the old Big East would have turned some heads.

I think missing a good player at the five position has severely handicapped KO and thus my ability to assess how good of a coach KO really is. Initially it was the APR. But when he finally was able to recruit two players who I felt were good enough for me to make any determination what type of coach KO could be, one player, Juwan suffered his second ACL and the other player, Zach, had to be cut loose. So I hear you on the results of the teams and they bother me as much as I believe they bother you, but I wish these circumstance hadn't happened so that I could make what I consider a proper evaluation of KO, his ability to develop players and his ability to coach games with decent players.